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Microsoft Drops Windows 7 E Editions
A week after Microsoft agreed to include a browser ballot screen in Windows 7 systems sold in Europe, then announced that those systems would initially include no browser at all — specifically, no Internet Explorer — Microsoft has changed its mind again and dropped talk of a European Windows 7 E edition. Here is the official Microsoft blog announcement, which includes a screen shot of the proposed ballot screen. The browsers are listed left-to-right in order of market share, with IE therefore having pride of place. PC Pro notes that, since the ballot screen would not appear if IE were not pre-installed, Microsoft's proposal opens the door for Google to work with PC manufacturers to get Chrome on new machines. Note that the browser ballot screen has not yet been accepted by the EU, though the initial reaction to it was welcoming.
Because Apple aren't a monopoly.
You're confusing things - it's not "Microsoft are a monopoly because they did this", it's "Microsoft are a monopoly, and they did this". Being a monopoly is about market share (well that's one definition - I'm not sure off hand what criteria the EU use, but the point is that Microsoft qualify, and Apple aren't even close).
Last, how is it a monopoly when the product (ie) is non profit (afaik)?
That's not really relevant, but anyway: Microsoft have a monopoly on operating systems, which they do sell.
You rewriting history in order to make it seem Microsoft actually got where they are through merit is laughable at best.
No, they got there because Netscape fucked up.
... there was no 5.0 ... the delay cost it over half of its market, and 6.0 was so bad that by the time IE6.0 was released it was down to less than 10% usage share.
Netscape was still the #1 leader when they made the choice to do a complete fucking rewrite that took several years.
This mistake was so terrible that Netscape usage tanked slowly, from the 60% usage share when NN4.0 was released (1997) down to 55% usage share when IE5.0 was released (1999), where it rapidly tanked down to 20% up until NN6.0 (2000)
No, it wasn't IE's merit.. it was the complete lack of any merit to the competition. NOBODY wanted to use NN6.. the only people who did were using AOL.
Thats the history. Those are the numbers. If you ever used NN4.0 you know for a fact it didnt hold a candle to IE6.0, and if you ever used NN6.0 you know for a fact that it crashed constantly and due to the rewrite, wasnt even as standards compliant as 4.0.
"His name was James Damore."